Home-schooled teen shoots himself to death at Michigan school he used to attend

Classes at a Michigan middle school were canceled on Monday after a former student fatally shot himself.

At a press conference on Monday afternoon, Dowagiac Public Safety Director Tom Atkinson confirmed that 13-year-old Darren James Price had died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Atkinson said that a custodian notified the Dowagiac Middle School principal after seeing Price on school grounds with a handgun at around 6:40 a.m, according to MLive.com. The teen ran into the woods after the principal tried to make contact.

Police were notified and set up a perimeter around the school. A sheriff's deputy later observed Price briefly emerge from the woods before running back up a trail. Moments later, officers heard a gunshot.

Students who were coming to school on buses at the time were diverted to an alternate location.

Superintendent Mark Daniel said that Price had been a 6th grade student at the school the previous year, but had spent the current school year being home schooled, MLive.com reported. It was not immediately clear if Price had planned to hurt anyone else before killing himself.

"We may never know why this happened," Atkinson explained.

The Dowagiac Union School district planned to have extra counselors on hand as students returned to class on Tuesday.

Watch the video below from WWMT, broadcast June 3, 2013.

[Photo: Depressed teen boy holding a handgun (Shutterstock.com)]